Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, May 3, 2008

As her 5-year-old son Colby sat on her lap playing Mario Cart, Sheila Elliott said it's these everyday experiences she cherishes the most.

When doctors discovered Colby had a severe heart defect they told the Elliotts he likely wouldn't survive birth.

But, after five open-heart surgeries, he's still going, playing with his brothers in the Elliots' Frisco home like any other child, said Elliott, a native Midlander.

"You forget that he has a heart defect, and I love those days when I don't think about it," she said. "But yet you're always kind of on guard."

After winning the Mrs. Collin County crown, Elliott, a Midland High graduate, competed last weekend in the Mrs. Texas pageant, not because she necessarily loves pageantry, but because she hopes the platform will raise awareness about children's heart defects.

She won the people's choice award with 40 percent of the vote, which Elliott said was mostly because people voted who had heard Colby's story. She also was named fourth runner-up.

Elliott's mother Loretta Lancaster, who still lives in Midland, said Elliott competed in a pageant in high school, but that she particularly enjoyed watching her daughter last weekend as she competed on Colby's behalf.

Last year Elliott won the title of Mrs. Frisco, which allowed her to travel to hospitals and visit with families who have or are expecting children like Colby, she said.

"You can do as much as you want to," she said. "I just tend to go all out."

From watching young girls in the hospital light up when they try on her crown, to donating blood, to talking to parents whose children with heart defects haven't been as fortunate Colby, she said the experiences allow her to gain perspective on their situation, while also spreading the word about the prevalence of heart defects.

Eight out of every 1,000 babies born has a congenital heart defect that ranges from a small hole to a completely disfigured organ, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Despite this, Elliott said, more funding is raised for other children's medical conditions that don't have as high of a prevalence as heart defects.

Elliott has already started tackling these issues, working in Texas to pass legislation that would mandate infant screening for heart defects. Similar legislation has been passed in Tennessee and is also being pushed by the American Heart Association.

Elliott said she won't compete for Mrs. Texas next year so she can focus on meeting with government officials about the bill. She's also shifted her occupation from teacher to paramedic so she can be a better caregiver for her son, she said.

Many defects, she said, are genetic which was the case in their family. She detected a murmur in the heart of Colby's twin, Ethan, last year, and after testing it was determined that Ethan and her husband, Jason, a graduate of Lee High School, had minor heart defects.

Colby will one day need a heart transplant, she said. But for now, he lives with minimal medication and is getting excited to take a trip to Disney World with his twin and 7-year-old brother Dillon that the family was granted from the Make A Wish Foundation.